If you are new to both JavaScript and programming, this hands-on book is for you. Rather than staring blankly at gobbledygook, you'll explore JavaScript by entering and running hundreds of code samples in Firebug, a free JavaScript debugger. Then in the last two chapters, you'll leave the safety of Firebug and hand-code an uber cool JavaScript application in your preferred text editor.

Written in a friendly, engaging narrative style, this innovative JavaScript tutorial covers the following essentials:

Formatting and naming conventions to prevent you from looking like a greenhorn.

New ECMAScript 5, DOM 3, and HTML 5 features such as Object.create(), Function.prototype.bind(), strict mode, querySelector(), querySelectorAll(), and getElementsByClassName().

As you can see, due to its fresh approach, this book is by no means watered down. Therefore, over the course of your journey, you will go from JavaScript beginner to wizard, acquiring the skills recruiters desire.

Who this book is for
This book is aimed at anybody who wants to learn how to use JavaScript to create more interactive and stickier web sites.

Table of Contents

Representing Data with Values

Type Conversion

Operators

Controlling Flow

Member Inheritance

Functions and Arrays

Traversing and Modifying the DOM Tree

Scripting CSS

Listening for Events

Scripting BOM

About the AuthorTerry McNavage has been hand-coding JavaScript for 12 years. In addition to being a JavaScript wizard, he has expertise in creative design, XHTML, CSS, PHP, Perl, and MySQL. Terry is an elite runner, too. For the past 14 years he has run 100 or more miles per week over the hilly terrain of Pittsburgh. He is also a bit of a foodie. Though his Pirates have had 18 losing seasons in a row, Terry remains hopeful they'll raise the Jolly Roger more often than the white flag in 2011.